The guns of the Great War

[2damnold4this]

Since this the the 100th anniversary of the Great War, I thought we might discuss the small arms used.

I once owned a G98 made in Danzig during the war and enjoyed shooting it but I don't have any time behind a period Enfield, Nagant, Lebel, M95 or other long arm used during the Great War. I have fired a WWII era Nagant, Enfeild as well as an FND (Belgian version of the BAR) and a 1919A4 but all of those firearms were slightly different than their WWI versions.

What are your thoughts on the rifles, handguns, shotguns and machine guns used in the Great War?

 

[Romeo 33 Delta]

They are every bit as much fun to shoot as their ancestors. Plus, we get things like SVT-40s, M1 Garands and M1 Carbines, and M1941 Johnsons as well as the German G-41M, G-41W and G/K-43s and even a better semi-auto from the French than their 1917 and 1918 attempts.

All in all ... it was just an convenient excuse for me to grow my collection and shooting experience. OUT-STAND-ING!

It is fun to take a "family" of arms out to the range. I find that more and more of our younger shooters are not familiar with many of these old arms.
Having a 20 something given the chance to shoot my M-1898 Krag Rifle was a treat for him because he had never heard of one. I was surprised, but glad to have been able to share some history with him. If your budget and depth of your collection permits, you can share some serious military history with newcomers to our hobby.

 

[SIGSHR]

I have read that the British had the best battle rifle, the Germans the best hunting rifle and the US the best target rifle. Probably the only Great Power battle rifle that could be considered already obsolete at the time was the Lebel with its tubular magazine requiring somewhat specialized ammunition to allow it to use spitzer bullets.

 

[kilimanjaro]

The No.1 Lee-Enfield is great fun to shoot.

Want to cause a stir at the range, trot out a 1918 Springfield or a Mauser Broomhandle with the WW1 shoulder stock.

 

[az_imuth]

Most of my collection consists of WW2 era rifles since they are more abundant than arms from the Great War. I do have a Springfield Armory M1903, but being dated at 1920 it missed by a few years. Currently the only WW1 rifle I own is this Winchester M1917 that I received from CMP. It was one of those "Luck-of-the-Draw" deals they had where you would get a rifle, but the manufacturer was unspecified. I wanted a Winchester and luck must have been on my side that day because that's what I received. According to a collector, this one was built on December 14, 1917 and has the original 12-17 dated Winchester barrel. All I can say is that I would hate to get buttstroked with a M1917 cause they are built like a tank. Wonderful rifles, but the cock-on-closing takes a little getting used to...for me at least.

 

[chiefr]

Aside from the #3s and the 1917s and 03s.

There were many great rifles used during that era. French and their Berthiers and 86 Lebels, 95s of the Aus/Hungarian, Mosins of the Russians, Turks used Gewer 88s/98s, and my favorite is the Gewer 98 of the Germans.